Pen adds touchscreen

Portronics Handmate Pen adds touchscreen experience to any Windows 8 machine

 2013

Portronics Handmate Windows 8 Pen is one of those nifty little devices that seem too good to be true when you first read about them. It promises to turn any Windows 8 laptop into a touchscreen device, letting you experience the joys of owning one of those 'hybrid' devices at fraction of the cost. But does it work? Let's find out.

Setting up the Handmate Windows 8 Pen is simple - just connect it to any available USB port on your Windows 8 laptop and fix the receiving unit on one of the edges of the screen, about halfway from the top. Go to Control Panel to calibrate the screen (the device comes with instructions on where exactly to go) and a barely a minute later, you are good to go. We hooked up the device to a HP Windows 8 laptop, but any standard Windows 8 machine should do.

Put in the batteries into the pen-shaped stylus and start operating your Windows 8 device by touching your laptop screen - swipe around the Windows 8 home screen, touch to start applications, swipe from edge to bring up the system menu and more, just like your device always had touch. The device really comes into its own when playing games like Cut The Rope or when you want to put finishing touches to your masterpiece in Paint.

However, there's more to touch than just fun and games - combine the Handmate Windows 8 Pen with Microsoft Office's Inking capabilities (found under the Review tab) and you have perhaps the fastest way to give feedback on Office documents while on the move.

A word of caution though, if you're used to super sensitive touch experience of the iPad and the likes, the Handmate Windows 8 Pen will take some getting used to. The stylus requires slightly heavier pressing than you'd probably expect, but not the kind that'll wear you down. It's a small adjustment to make, and one you'll likely make swiftly.

The Handmate Windows 8 Pen comes bundled with spare stylus and batteries that power the stylus. Portronics claims 500 hours of battery life given working/ standby ratio of 1:9. The sensors on the Handmate Windows 8 Pen use a combination of infrared and ultrasound technologies and work on screens sized 16-inches and below, which means it is good to use with laptops and even desktop monitors of that size. A newer generation product that will work with screen sizes of up to 25-inches is expected soon.

All in all, Handmate Windows 8 Pen offers a decent option for those looking to add a dash of touch to their Windows 8 experience. At Rs. 4,999 it's a not-so-expensive option to see if touch fits in your workflow before you take the plunge and buy an expensive native touchscreen device.

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Microsoft sued

Microsoft sued over Surface tablet's storage capacity

Associated Press, November 15, 2012

 A California lawyer is suing Microsoft Corp., claiming the Surface tablet he bought doesn't have all the storage space the company advertised.Andrew Sokolowski, a lawyer in Los Angeles, claims that he bought a Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage last week. But he quickly ran out of space after loading it with music and Microsoft Word documents.
He discovered that a significant portion of the 32 GB storage space was being used by the operating system and pre-installed apps such as Word and Excel. Only 16 GB was available for him to use.
Sokolowski's lawyers filed the suit alleging false advertising and unfair business practices on Tuesday at the Superior Court in Los Angeles. They are seeking class action status.
The suit aims to change how Microsoft advertises its device and hopes to force the company to give back revenue and profits that resulted from its alleged wrongful conduct.
Microsoft said in a statement that it believes the suit is without merit.
"Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device's internal storage thereby reducing the total free space," the company said. It noted that people can add storage via the microSD slot and USB port.
Microsoft confirmed on Nov. 5 exactly how much usable storage space its Surface tablets come with out of the box. It says on its website that the 32 GB Surface has 16 GB of free space while the 64 GB version has 45 GB free. The Surface started selling Oct. 26 and Sokolowski bought his device on Nov. 7.
Sokolowski's lawyer, Rhett Francisco, said Wednesday that his client never saw Microsoft's responses and said the details on its website are "buried."
"They make you search and dig for it specifically, or you would never find it," he said.
It's common for mobile devices to have less usable storage space than advertised.
Flash drives and regular hard drives provide less usable memory than their labels say, mainly because there are two definitions of the word "gigabyte." That means that, right off the bat, consumers get about 7 percent less space than advertised. A 16 GB drive, for example, has about 15 GB available for use.
On flash drives, the kind used in tablets, another factor reduces the available storage further. A portion of the memory space is set aside to replace "cells" that wear out over time. For this reason, Apple's 16 GB iPad has an actual storage capacity that's 11 percent lower than the one advertised: 14.3 GB. The 64 GB model stores 57.2 GB.
On the iPad, all the storage space after the 11 percent "discount" is available for the user's photos, movies and apps. The operating system and Apple's pre-installed apps have their own, separate memory space. Microsoft's operating system and apps, in contrast, share memory space with the user.
Michael Gartenberg, research director for technology research firm Gartner Inc., said Microsoft has consistently said there would be less memory available than is advertised. He said it is "unsurprising" that its new operating system and near full-blown version of Office take up a big chunk of the memory.
"I think they made it pretty clear to consumers what they're getting," he said.
And even if Microsoft's base-model Surface only has 16 GB of memory available, that's still slightly more than the 14.3 GB you'll get from the latest Wi-Fi only iPad for the same price of $499

Nokia with Microsoft

Nokia sees no change in relationship with Microsoft

Reuters, November 15, 2012

Nokia's chief executive said there would be no change in the relationship with its software partner Microsoft, despite the software giant's entry into tablets and partnerships with rival phone makers.Stephen Elop said Nokia retained a "special" relationship with Microsoft, even though others such as HTC have also launched phones with Windows Phone software.
"They're not sitting in the priority meetings that we're sitting in," he said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecoms conference in Barcelona on Wednesday.
Analysts have said Microsoft could one day become a rival to Nokia if it launches its own smartphones, while there is also speculation that the U.S. company could one day acquire the Finnish phone manufacturer.

Nokia Lumia 830 leak

Purported pictures of Nokia Lumia 830 leak online

 November 09, 2012

A new 'Nokia Lumia smartphone' has made an appearance in the wild. Chinese website WPDang has posted several pictures of a new smartphone that it claims is the Nokia Lumia 830, a likely successor of the Nokia Lumia 710.Nokia Lumia 710 is mid-range Windows Phone smartphone, which has a 3.7-inch touchscreen, 1.4GHz processor and a 5-megapixel rear camera. It runs on Windows Phone 7.5 and is expected to get an update to Windows Phone 7.8 soon.
According to WPDang, Nokia Lumia 830 too is expected to be a mid-range smartphone running on Windows Phone 8. It is expected to be cheaper than the recently showcased Nokia Lumia 820. The only information available with the website right now is that Nokia Lumia 830 will be available in five colour options - black, white, red, yellow and green. It did not post any hardware specifications or availability details. The pictures themselves show a smartphone that looks very similar to the Nokia Lumia 820.
Nokia had showcased Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 smartphones in September 2012. Nokia Lumia 920 is its flagship smartphone and Nokia Lumia 820 is a mid-range offering and both are expected to be available in India this month.
Nokia had recently launched the "cheapest Lumia device in the world", Nokia Lumia 510, which is now available Rs. 9,999 online. The Nokia Lumia 510 sports a 4-inch WVGA (800X480) display with a 5-megapixel rear camera and runs on Windows Phone 7.5. The phone is powered by a 800MHz Qualcomm processor and ships with 256MB RAM and 4GB internal storage.